term time school hols (yes, again!)

Hapless_2

IMO I think kids can learn more on holiday for a week than in a whole term at school (which is why i home ed) BUt, schools have now been given targets and this includes sickness, many schools now require a doctors certificate if they are going to be off ill for more than a week because some parent swere using it as a chance to take the children on holiday.

attendance at school when registered on the school roll is enshrined in law.

black-saturn

Are you going on holiday in the UK? Could you ring the school four days running and say she's ill? They can't do anything about illness and it's counted as authorised absense.

helen81_2

No, we are going abroad, and it's 6 days that they can't authorise.

I agree that kids can learn much more while on a family holiday than at school sometimes..in our case this is true..we are going to Egypt and my daughters class are studying Egyptians and the country at the mo!!

Helen x

black-saturn

If you can prove that they will be educated during the holiday i believe the school will let it go. try devising some kind of homework for them to do or ask their teacher if she can give them some work to do.

I took my 2 children to Cairo last year when they were learning about it at school and they gained so much from being there.

welshgirlmel

Well the secretary of the NASUWT said term time hols are often educational and there should be more tolerance of children taking holidays in term time, as a former teacher I totally agree!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/4249623.stm

Mel

Doozergirl

Could you have a little word with the headteacher? I'm sure you can avoid the fine if you tell it the way you've told us.

Our authorised absence form says that that the school requires a detailed explanation for more than 10 days. It doesn't say that we'll get fined!

buxtonrabbitgreen

I can also see both sides of the argument. Holidays taken during school holidays are more expensive, but the schools' argument is that they get a lot behind even missing a few days. At my kids school the prospectus did say that it was discretionary not a right to have time off during term time. As your dd is still in primary I can't see it makes much difference. She will have finished her SATs won't she? I know quite a lot of parents who would pay the fine if it less than the gain frim the cost of the holiday. I agree that it would be pertinent to her school work and maybe the head could take this into consideration.

kaykay_2

I work in this field and the fine is £50 per parent per child for payment within the first 28 days. In my authority and this does vary - a Fixed Penalty Notice (FPN) is issued for UNATHORISED holidays of 10 or more sessions ( 10 sessions is 10 1/2 days so for 5 days or more - 2.63% of total absence. The code of conduct in relation to FPN's varies between local authorities so look it up on your local council website. Alternatively you could speak with your Education Welfare Officer. An unauthorised absence will remain on your childs record but in terms of whether this is detrimental would depend on whether there were other unauthorised absences. For example it could be used against you if your child was not attending school regularly normally. If your childs attendance is good and the holiday absence was the only unauthorised absence and the Local Authority do not issue an FPN for that no other action would be taken and it would not really be of any detriment. Some Local Authorities take a rigorous approach to unauthorised holidays and in some Authorities some Headteachers do not use FPN's at all. Schools and Local Authories are under increasing pressure to perform in terms of attendance and attainment and inevitably the pressure is passed on to parents in this way.

Zziggi

kaykay wrote: »

I work in this field and the fine is £50 per parent per child for payment within the first 28 days. In my authority and this does vary - a Fixed Penalty Notice (FPN) is issued for UNATHORISED holidays of 10 or more sessions ( 10 sessions is 10 1/2 days so for 5 days or more - 2.63% of total absence. The code of conduct in relation to FPN's varies between local authorities so look it up on your local council website. Alternatively you could speak with your Education Welfare Officer. An unauthorised absence will remain on your childs record but in terms of whether this is detrimental would depend on whether there were other unauthorised absences. For example it could be used against you if your child was not attending school regularly normally. If your childs attendance is good and the holiday absence was the only unauthorised absence and the Local Authority do not issue an FPN for that no other action would be taken and it would not really be of any detriment. Some Local Authorities take a rigorous approach to unauthorised holidays and in some Authorities some Headteachers do not use FPN's at all. Schools and Local Authories are under increasing pressure to perform in terms of attendance and attainment and inevitably the pressure is passed on to parents in this way.

As you work in the field, may i ask a couple of questions?

(1) Where does all the money from the fixed penalty fines go? The LEA?

(2) Who decides if a FPN will be issued?

(3) Does the Head have the right to unilaterally decide whether or not to allow the absence? If so, isn't the system open to abuse? The Head only needs to have their own agenda and perfectly valid reasons for absence suddenly become invalid reasons. Also if the Head can unilaterally decide then it is open to favouritism, discrimination and basic unfairness.

P.S. in principle i agree with avoiding term-time holidays but I do strongly object to having to "request" permission from the Headteacher, I am the parent - not the school. Should we ever wish to take a term-time holiday I will not be requesting permission from the school but politely informing them of my intentions.

P.P.S. If earnt what a Head earns then I would gladly take the kids on holiday in school holidays and never in term-time. Maybe I should ask the Head to pay the difference?

bunty109

Zziggi wrote: »

As you work in the field, may i ask a couple of questions?

(1) Where does all the money from the fixed penalty fines go? The LEA?

(2) Who decides if a FPN will be issued?

(3) Does the Head have the right to unilaterally decide whether or not to allow the absence? If so, isn't the system open to abuse? The Head only needs to have their own agenda and perfectly valid reasons for absence suddenly become invalid reasons. Also if the Head can unilaterally decide then it is open to favouritism, discrimination and basic unfairness.

With regard to your third question, as a school governor, the Governing Body approves/reviews the policy for dealing with such absences so a parent may have a case of recourse to the governors.....I assume that it isn't just my school that has such policies.

I don't know about the first 2 as FPNs aren't issued by my LEA as far as I am aware...